Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon

This is a fun series of books/ collages about art, being creative, and an affirmation that artists steal stuff from influences they love, then remix them in ways unique to themselves. Basically, it’s trying to let you off the hook from thinking you need to be “completely original” to matter. Artists steal inspiration from everywhere (not to be confused with plagiarism, which is bad and should be avoided).

★ ★ ★ ★

The Blue Castle, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

A sweet story: part romance, part self-discovery, part appreciation of nature. Valancy Stirling is a quiet, unhappy young woman in her late-20’s. She lives quietly at home, doing everything she’s supposed to, and hating all of it. Her family overlooks her and considers her an Old Maid. When she receives a medical diagnosis, she decides to live her remaining life the way she wants to, with surprising and happy results.

Montgomery’s descriptions of Canada are beautiful, as always (I think my very favorite part was in the middle when Montgomery describes time passing by telling us about the beauties of each season), and the story gentle, which was a welcome relief in a time when real life was a bit…much.

★ ★ ★ ★

The Toll, by Neal Shusterman

This is the final installment of the Scythe trilogy. It’s hard to talk about the plot without spoilers for previous books, but the scope continues to widen, as a third installments usually does. Things look dire for our heroes.

Generally I liked this and thought it brought the series to an interesting conclusion, but I found the ending a little abrupt — there were lots of characters by the end and while we check in with most of the main ones left, what happens to the larger society and where a couple of the characters go next was left a little hazy. I understand this, but it felt a little…unfinished, or maybe unpolished.

But if you’re looking for a YA dystopian series to fill the Hunger Games sized hole in your heart, this may be just what you’re looking for.

★ ★ ★

Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear

We open with Miss Dobbs opening a private investigation business. Her first case is a possible marital infidelity, proving to me that this is the main reason to hire a PI, even in the 1920’s.

Most of this book is told in flashbacks of Maisie’s early life and how she went from housemaid to PI (well, the link between the end of the war and wanting to become an investigator is not fleshed out, but ok). It’s an interesting origin story for a female investigator after World War I, and the book is full of interesting historical detail.

The opening mystery itself seems more of a setup for dealing with the aftermath of WWI — there are interesting questions of how to deal with collective grief due to a traumatic worldwide event (this seems a little more relevant these days…).

Overall this was an enjoyable light touch look at post-WWI England and an introduction to a character who, I assume, has more adventures in psychology and detection in later books.

★ ★ ★

I’ve found it hard to focus the past couple months, so I’m surprised I read this much in April. I’m letting myself off the hook for trying to read anything difficult right now, and will get back to some of the tomes I want to read at a later date, maybe when we aren’t in the middle of a pandemic?

What have you been reading lately? Or have you been able to read much?

So…March was an interesting month. But I got a good bit of reading done, so let’s talk about covid-19 elsewhere and in this post I’ll focus on the books!

Save Me the Plums, by Ruth Reichl. This was a library book and I forgot to take a picture, alas!

I’ve read several of Reichl’s food memoirs and enjoyed them all. This one was specifically about her time working at food magazine Gourmet. Her descriptions of food are mouth-watering, and her writing deceptively simple.

★ ★ ★ ★

Scythe, by Neal Shusterman.

This is the first book in a YA trilogy about a perfect world where humans don’t die and don’t have to really feel pain. A benevolent AI, the Thunderhead, controls most of life’s logistics, and humans get to live their lives any way they want. When they start getting old, they reset down to a younger age and keep living.

This means that overpopulation could be a real problem, so there are some people, called Scythes, specially selected to winnow the population (see what I did there?) by “gleaning” people aka killing them.

Our two protagonists, Citra and Rowan, are selected for Scythe training, and they find that not everything is as perfect as it seems….

A light dystopian book with fascinating world building and interesting characters.

★ ★ ★ ★

The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis.

Ben told me that I only had myself to blame, but reading this while finding out that the world is currently dealing with a global pandemic was truly bad timing. Please save this book for happier times, as it’s a bit of a downer.

In this book, Oxford historians study history by time traveling back and experiencing what it was really like. Kivrin, an aspiring young historian, is sent back to 1320 and she promptly becomes ill with influenza. Back in the future, the team that sent her also experiences a flu epidemic, and Oxford is quarantined so they have trouble bringing her back….

Of the two storylines, I enjoyed the medieval one more, as Kivrin explored the time period and got to know a family and their way of life. The 2055 timeline was mostly Kivrin’s mentor obsessing about getting her back while also dealing with the deteriorating situation.

This book was interesting, but there was a lot of death, right at the time a global pandemic was unfolding in real life, so….

★ ★ ★

Thunderhead, by Neal Shusterman.

This is the second book in the Scythe trilogy. As usual in a second book, the situation unravels, new characters are introduced, and the world becomes bleaker! Yay!

Still interesting, and I enjoyed some of the new characters introduced, but a second book is tough to review without spoilers and without the (hopefully–I haven’t finished yet) resolution of the third book.

★ ★ ★

The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins. This was for my 50 Classics project, so it gets its own fancy review.

The style is Charles Dickens but a light mystery! …and yes, I know there are elements of mystery in some of Dickens’ novels. Let’s not get hung up on that here.

★ ★ ★ ★

I finished three books in February, one of which was The Picture of Dorian Gray for the Classics Club. I’ll give that its own post. Here are the other two:

I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening), by Sarah Stewart Holland & Beth Silvers

This is a book by two podcast hosts who want to encourage people to come at politics from less of an entrenched/ partisan perspective. On the one hand, I think this is an important message and if we all approached political conversations with more grace, we might do less screaming on the internet (though, maybe not). On the other hand, I’m not sure how well it holds up as a book apart from their podcast.

I think these two are better podcasters than writers, as I found some of the book a bit repetitive (my common non-fiction complaint).

The bottom line is they recommend thinking through what is important to you and why it is important and trying to discuss in a calmer way, not assuming someone who has reached a different conclusion is an uncaring monster. They also suggest looking at the history of a current policy might help shed light on a way forward.

★ ★ ★

Parker Pyne Investigates, by Agatha Christie

Ah, Agatha Christie, how I love you. Usually Poirot or Miss Marple come to mind when thinking of Christie, but this short story collection follows Parker Pyne, who has an advertisement that reads: “Are you happy? If not, consult Mr. Parker Pyne.”

In these twelve stories Pyne helps people who are unhappy for various reasons: the spark has gone out of their marriage; they’re young and single but wish to be married; they are mixed up in a jewel caper; they get into trouble while on holiday, etc. Mr. Pyne seeks to help his clients using “statistical knowledge” of the human heart (which works most of the time…).

While I prefer her mysteries featuring her more famous detectives, these were entertaining short stories read by Hugh Fraser, maybe my favorite Christie narrator.

Favorite story from this collection: The Case of the Distressed Lady.

★ ★ ★